Your men have failed sack them – Kwabena Agyapong petitions Akufo-Addo

The harsh realities of the continuous economic stagnation in Ghana does not support claims by President Akufo-Addo that his team of experts in charge of the country’s economy have done an outstanding work and achieved the desired output and therefore a reshuffle is needless, Kwabena Agyapong, a former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who served as Press Secretary under President John Kufuor has sated.

Mr. Agyapong said it is unacceptable to allow the same team of economic managers that has managed Ghana to its current state remain in office and expect any new results.

He explained why he disagrees with the marking scheme of Presient Akufo-Addo: “You are in Government and the tones that you set and the values that you espouse is what rubs off on your Cabinet, rubs off on your party and eventually the country that we live in. So I think I was not too happy with some of the remarks [by the President]

“You have to set a very high bar and you have to demand results from your team. You should never be satisfied especially and say that they are doing very well when the results do not suggest that that it what it is.
“When you are a political leader, you look at the data and the science. And it is there: there is clear evidence. Do you know that the Treasury Bills rates have started to go up 27 and 29 percent? Interest inflation is over 32 percent? So we are in dangerous times. The only major thing that the President can do to arrest the situation is to clear out the managers of the economy. And it is a fact. That is what is left for him to do because you cannot let the same people who have driven us to this stage to remain in office”, Mr. Agyapong noted in an interview with Nana Appaih Kubi, host of ‘Maakye’ on Kessben Television last Friday August 12.

Are They Serving Ghana?

Kwabena Agyapong cited a number of instances where government appointees should have been sacked from office after they had taken decisions he described as wrong.

“I have said before that there should be a drastic surgery of the Government. He has got to take fantastic action and cut. How is it convenient that at the time we say we are going to IMF, we don’t have money to do so many things, we have a budget deficit, have you not seen gleaming new Land Cruisers that costs 175,000 being used by public officials? Have you not seen that? Is this the time to do such a thing? The President should fire those you took that procurement. Not at this time! If we are pleading with Ghanaians that we are in difficult times and we are tightening our belts, we have to lead by example.

“We have to regulate things. When we are in serious times, we have to put ourselves in a war-footing. Things cannot be normal and that’s why I want to speak through this medium to my big brother, our good friend, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to save ourselves, to save our party by taking the decisions that are necessary to take at least so that those who are responsible for bringing us this far accept responsibility and deal with it.”

The former NPP General Secretary, in the same interview with Kessben Television expressed doubts about the commitment and mindset of some of the persons closest to the Office of the President: “Nobody is looking for Ken Ofori Atta’s job. We are looking for the economic health of this country. And some of us have to stand up and be counted. I would rather die speaking the truth than be a populist because I am a member of the NPP.

“I am an NPP person and everybody knows I love this country. When we were behind Akufo-Addo in 1998, most of these guys were also in this country. They did not have faith in him. I am beginning to wonder whether they are serving him and serving the country’s interest. I am beginning to ask them: are they really true NPP people? Do they have NPP cards? I want to see when they signed on to this NPP and which constituencies they belong to because I think a lot of the key people around him do not have this party at heart and are damaging the party and damaging the country at the same time and are going to damage the brand of our NPP.

“Those of us who are the patriots of our party, we have to stand up and say it. Life is not about position. I am not going contrary to the Government. My life is not determined or fashioned by the position I occupy. It is determined by the positive impact we make on society and on people. If one day, you are able to put a smile on someone’s face, in my view, you have done your work for the day.

“I hope the President is listening to me his good friend and his campaign staffer in 1998. This is genuine coming from the bottom of my heart. He should not allow people who do not have this country at heart to sink this country. He has worked too hard for this country for 40 years to get to this stage. It is not too late, we’ve got two years and he can turn things around”.